This invention relates to a vehicle navigation system, and more particularly to a vehicle navigation system which is capable of inspiring user's wants or desires for driving.
A conventional vehicle navigation system has the capability of detecting the present position of a traveling vehicle based on geographical information supplied from the well-known global positioning system (GPS), calculating for the routing of the vehicle connecting the present position to a goal point (i.e., destination) based on the detected position of the vehicle, and providing a sound route guidance along the determined route.
Recent advancement or development in the semiconductor technologies enables this kind of vehicle navigation system to store various kinds of information or data to enhance the functions of this system.
For example, well known is a memory function for storing the places designated on a map as memory spots. The memory function allows a user to simply utilize such memory spots as a goal or transit point for route guidance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,323 discloses a map retrieving system according to which a specific local area having been often referred to in the past is displayed with higher priority. This technique will give a great assistance to a user who wants to quickly find his/her target place.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-148833 discloses a navigation system which automatically judges the familiarity with each road on which a vehicle is running and provides a map display for route guidance which especially places emphasis on the case a driver is unfamiliar with the road that the vehicle is currently running.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 6-348988 discloses a recording system capable of automatically storing the record of driving, such as transit points, traveling regions, distances, famous places, total traveling distances, to enhance the usability of a navigation system.
The efforts to provide such convenient and user-friendly navigation systems will lead to wide spread use of the systems and also bring great advancement in the relevant technological fields.
However, all of the above-described conventional systems are rather passive in the sense that these systems work properly only when they are used with some intents. For example, according to the recording system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 6-348988, the record of driving can not be obtained until a user drives a vehicle for the purpose of collecting the data of driving.